"Being the wife of a terrorist is not honoring me or my family and it is not going to honor my kids," one woman said

Published Jul 5, 2018 at 5:01 AM

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This Feb. 26, 2017, file photo shows displaced Iraqis flee the city of Mosul as Iraqi forces fight jihadists during an operation to retake the city from ISIS fighters.

Iraq has seen "a huge increase" in divorce requests in the last three months, the vast majority filed by women, Deputy Justice Minister Hussein Jassem told NBC News.

That includes an uptick in applications in regions where ISIS was strong, he said.

A judge in the former ISIS stronghold of Mosul reported that dozens of women are applying to dissolve their marriages every week, according to Belkis Wille, senior Iraq researcher for Human Rights Watch.

One woman who spoke to NBC News said she was disappointed her husband decided to join ISIS rather than take care of his family: "Being the wife of a terrorist is not honoring me or my family and it is not going to honor my kids."